My friend @cupcakekaracosplay loves cheese (who doesn't!) so for her birthday in 2010 I made her some cheese pillows.
They are made out of fleece, so the raw edges don't fray. It's a good thing they don't because I did not know how to properly finish edges. But! This is the first project where I used the sewing machine! Straight seams are easy, but those circles had to be done really slowly.
The cheese wedge is more like a plushie, because it is stuffed and completely sewn shut. But the cheese slice is actually a pillow sleeve. So the pillow can be washed separately (or the pillow can be replaced when it loses it's floof).
Random funny cheese video under the read more~
It's one of the clips from ASDF movie 4, and it just never gets old~
My first not-bought cosplay was Lavi's third uniform from D.Gray-Man.
I realize "not-bought" is a strange way to describe it, but I have not made this myself. My mom did. I did help with searching for materials and patterns, and how to adjust the patterns to make it look like the Black Order uniform, but the sewing was all done by her! When you don't know how to sew, or even where to start, this was a great help.
A more in-depth description and some extra pictures are beneath the read more.
The fabric we used was a polyester fabric called terlenka. It's a cheap fabric that's mostly used in carnaval costumes. It's a fabric that doesn't bleed, even with all the wild colours available, but it's slightly annoying to work with (which I didn't yet realize at that time 😅 ).
The white pants was store bought, because that was also difficult for my mom, since she hadn't sewn for quite a while, but white pants are luckily easy to find.
I bought insanely expensive (for me at that time at least) boots for this cosplay. So I am very glad I learned how to make boot-covers since then xD
I did not use a wig for this cosplay back then. I was still convinced that 'just dyeing my hair red' was good enough.
The eye-patch, tiny hammer, big hammer and scarf were made by me. The scarf was just a really long rectangle which had to be sewn straight, and that is the best way to start learning to sew and using a sewing machine.
The hammer was a bit of a hassle. I had a big cardboard cylinder (I think it was originally a laundry detergent container xD ) as base. And build upon that with cardboard, PVC pipe and PVC connectors. I made the point detachable, but a screw and balsa wood are best to stay connected. (so halfway some photoshoot I had to fix it with black tape, which also didn't stay put... )
Along with the Black Order emblem, which I bought online, the outfit was complete~
I should really catch up on reading D.Gray-Man... Lavi is a big reason I was a big fan of the manga!
This is the second batch of Hetalia mochi’s I made for my friend @whenwolfbaneblooms. From left to right it’s: America, France oni-chan and Canada~ . (look at France just vibing in the middle xD )
Like the last ones, I used an existing pattern for the mochi shape, one made by coconut_lane on DeviantArt (see my last mochi post). These were also handsewn. The faces were embroidered on, but the eye colours were coloured with fabric markers.
I made even more, but they were made in 2011, so they'll be uploaded soon(-ish).
Mochitalia! Food with faces, but make it fandom 8D
I think that Hetalia was the first fandom I really gotten into. Not that I mind, I learned some interesting history things because of it xD and with the mochitalia comic entering the picture, my food with faces craze got even crazier!
This was the first batch of mochitalia plushies I made. I made these for @wfl-art, so I chose the characters she really liked at the time. From left to right that’s : Russia, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and England.
Not all characters got officially “mochi-fied”, but it was fun to try and capture their most common characteristics.
I used an existing pattern for the mochi shape, one made by coconut_lane on DeviantArt. It’s very simple, beginner friendly and not too big to sew by hand. Again, I used mostly fabric from my moms’ fabric stash. The faces were embroidered on, but for the eye colours I either coloured with fabric markers, or sewn on some fitting fabric.
I really loved making these, so you’ll see some more soon~
Oh man, in highschool I drew faces on everthing, but mostly foods. Not on the actual food, but cute drawings of food? Yeah, mostly that. So when I realised I could I embroider faces on plushies of food, I went ALL OUT!
These cookies are the first Food-with-faces I made and were very simple to make, but hard on my fingers. As with the previous projects, I just looked whatever fabric or old clothes we had, and this fabric came from an old jacket. I was some sort of fake leather / suede with a soft inside (which I used here on the outside). But man, that fabric was dense. After embroidering just half a chocolate-chip, I got a serious dent in my finger. After keeping up, the tip of my finger just started feeling numb (which made it easier to keep going, but eh, that's still not very good). So it took a while to complete these 😅
I gave most of these to friends, but I kept the (┬┬﹏┬┬) one in the middle, to use as a pincushion xD
The pattern is just a circle, so that was pretty straightforward. Some progress pictures down below, where you can see the basic shape of the cookies.
Oh, and these look better than they taste. Just a warning 8D
My first anime cosplay! Akatsuki group member Tobi from Naruto.
This was the first (and only one for a long time 😅) cosplay I ever bought. Back in 2009, there weren't as many cosplay specific websites to buy your costumes. At least, not that I knew of, but I wasn't as internet savy as I am now. But together with some friends, we decided to do an Akatsuki group cosplay and buy our costumes from the same shop, in one big order.
Sizes online are always difficult for me, since I never fall in one category, but I had to try. So when everything arrived, most things were pretty OK, and fitted quite well. Except, the thing that's most visible, the coat... was way too big! The width was big, but not too big. But the lenght xD It just looked like I was wearing a long dress. This made me decide to try and make my own costumes.
The mask was self-made and I was quite happy with it. the only problem was, 2 days before the event, I had gotten some sort of food allergy, which had caused my face to be quite swollen. This made my mask fit a lot tighter and slighty cut off my air supply 😱
I went maskless the rest of the day, but vowed to make air holes in any new masks I would make after that xD
This cosplay was worn at F.A.C.T.S. 2009. And despite the slight lack of air, I did have a lot of fun!
The inspiration for the first picture pose, and some notes on how I made the mask are beneath the read more.
I don't think the group pose picture is an official picture, but I have no idea who drew it in the first place. Perfect picture idea though 8D
The mask was made with paper maché. First a (slightly bumpy) base was made, on which the swirls were shaped. Since the paper maché was made with old paper, it was very lumpy. I didn't realize I could sand it, so I just painted it orange.
It was a bit heavy, so I used a broad black elastic, sewed the width together to double it up and used a staple gun to attach it to the inside of the mask xD
Incredibly pink and incredibly sassy, Yoshi from D.Gray-Man~
This is the second plushie I ever made (and the third mascot-like character).
Just like Cheese-kun, this plushie was mainly made in the same way. A silhouette of the body and ears was cut out twice and sewn together. But for Yoshi, I tried to get a more ball-shaped head, because this seemed more appropriate. It kinda worked... xD
The materials were again things we had at home. Felt in various colours for the belly, ears, and face. A T-shirt like stretch fabric was used for the body and a fluffy yarn-pompom as a tail. Everything was sewn together by hand. I also used some thin polyester batting to stiffen the ears a bit, but it didn't help that much.
I still think it's not too bad for a self-drawn pattern of a mascot character that doesn't appear that often 8D
Some reference pictures and sketches of Yoshi below the cut~
I remember also wanting to make that mug. Hmm, maybe a future project?
It was kinda difficult to find some proper non-fanart pictures, but that’s probably the reason I made the sketches below so many years ago.
